News
Bringing order to tuk-tuk services in Laos
It has been observed that the drivers of some tuk-tuks and jumbos in Vientiane are rude to foreigners when they question the often exorbitant charges cited by drivers. While most Lao people prefer not to use tuk-tuks and jumbos, visitors often have no choice but to ...
Lao Government renews award policy for veterans
The Lao government has renewed a policy that rewards veterans who excelled in the revolutionary fight for national liberation, with targeted groups to be awarded under the new system. Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong last month inked the eight-page governmental decree to replace the previous one promulgated ...
35 percent of Lao budget for debt repayment
The Lao government has instructed central and local state organisations to use up to 35 percent of the annual total budget allocated to them to repay debt they have accumulated. The instruction was part of debt payment measures resolved by the annual government meeting where the ...
First bird flu outbreak this year confirmed in Laos
The first avian flu outbreak this year in Laos was reported in ducks and chickens in a farm located in Xayabury. Keep reading ...
New Lao-Thai centre to help tackle trafficking
Thailand and Laos have decided to set up a social development centre to help tackle human trafficking, Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said on 26 September. After the 20th Thai-Lao Joint Commission meeting at a Chiang Rai hotel, Don told reporters that he had signed a memorandum ...
Lao officials investigate massive increase in illegal logging
A leaked report by an international environmental group revealing huge increases in illegal logging in Laos with an implication of government collusion has prompted officials in the small Southeast Asian nation to take action to examine discrepancies in timber export and import figures with China ...
Increased access to public services in Laos is distorting broader inequality
Since the early 1990s, five rounds of the Lao Expenditure and Consumption Surveys have shown that measured inequality has increased at the national level — within both rural and urban areas, within almost all provinces of Laos and within each of the four major ethnic ...
Laos boosts hydropower, explores coal deposits for shale gas
Laos aims to sharply boost its hydropower generation to 10,000 megawatts by 2020 and is exploring for shale gas as part of plans to export electricity to its neighbours, its vice minister of energy and mines said on 26 October. Laos is among Asia’s poorest countries ...
How greatly must Laos suffer at the hands of drug traffickers?
Almost every day, Lao local newspapers report about the apprehension of drug traffickers, while every so often they report the murder of innocent people such as women and children as a result of drug use, particularly amphetamines. One example was reported on 11 October when a ...
Laos hosts Chinese banana rush
Northern Laos is emerging as an important source of fresh bananas for the Chinese market, with several different investors from China itself understood to be establishing plantations covering thousands of hectares across several different regions. The investors have been drawn to the region by good availability ...
